It was a seemingly average day in a seemingly average café but for me it was nothing short of monumental the pressure that rested upon what was about to happen. She sat in front of me looking almost innocent with her red hair falling over her eyes. But I knew better; she wasn't innocent at all she was the devil, in Emily's clothing. It might be slightly dramatic but I now know what it must have been like at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. That's how important this meeting is to me.
"So?" She demanded. Until the day I die it will never fail to amaze me that someone who looks so much like Emily could be so unlike her in every other way.
"So what?" I ask, because I don't know what to say.
"So, aren't you going to say something, or something?" She asks. Clearly I'm supposed to take the lead in these peace talks.
"Well I think we're both know why we're here." I say, perhaps with a little more attitude than I should have but I can't help it.
"Emily." She sighs. I know she wishes it wasn't me. She wishes it was anyone in the world but me. I used to wish it wasn't me either but it is me and right now we both have to deal with that.
"Yes, Emily." I repeat. If she's not going to make this easy I don't see why I should.
"I don't see why I'm even here, I made my feelings perfectly clear the last time I met with you and you totally ignored them so I can't see how this will be any different." She said snidely.
"Well things have changed a bit since then." Naomi snorted. Katie just made a face conveying an emotion somewhere between indifference and disgust. "She loves both of us, in different ways mind you, but she does. And she just wants us to be civil to each other." I try to explain. I fucking hope Emily understands how much she means to me because there is no way on God's green earth I would be here if I did not love her so much.
"Yeah well I'm still not happy about it. I can't pretend to be." Katie huffs. I bite my lower lip to stop myself slapping her.
"Look Katie, this is who Emily is and I am who Emily loves. Why can't you understand that? Why can't you just accept that? Don't you want her to be happy?" If it wasn't for Emily this girl would be severely bruised by now.
"I mean I don't get it, even if she does have to be a muff muncher, why does it have to be you?" Katie asks, getting to the root of the problem.
"Honestly," I start taking a deep breath to calm myself because for once I'm about to be completely frank with the girl I've come to know as Emily's evil counterpart. "I ask myself that same question every day. I wonder why she wants me when she could easily have so many other people, people who might be better for her or more suited. But she tells me she doesn't want anyone else and there's no one else I'd rather be with." I'm really putting myself out there. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done. Katie looks up at me; it's the first time since we sat done that she's looked me in the eye.
"Really?" She asks there's something in her eyes that reminds me of my Emily.
"Really, I can't imagine not being with her. I do love her Katie! Hard as that may be for you to believe." I sigh. If that hasn't gotten though to her I don't know what will. Emily will just have to keep us in separate rooms or something.
"Alright then." She says with a small nod.
"Alright then what?" Her statement is so vague.
"Alright then, if you make my sister happy then I guess I'll try not to hate you." She concedes. Maybe she's not the total bitch she pretends to be. I smile at her.
"This doesn't mean we're friends or anything. Or that I ever want to see you sucking the face off her." She snaps back into bitch mode. I nod along. I can live with that.
"Thanks Katie." I say because I know having her onside will make some things a lot easier.
"Not friends." She reminds me.
"Definitely not." I assure her. "This is strictly a onetime only Emily related deal."
"Yes." She says firmly. She eyes me appraisingly and wrinkles her nose slightly in thought, looking a lot like Emily as she does. "And I suppose...she could do worse." She states as she pushes herself up from the table and leaves. And that was it the biggest compliment I'll ever receive from Katie Fitch. I count myself lucky. I smile to myself as I finish the rest of my coffee and follow her out the door. Yup, Emily owes me big time! I think as I take out my phone to text her.